My Magic Beans

When people find out I’ve lost over 100 pounds, the first question is, “What are you DOING? I need to do THAT!”

I always chuckle to myself because I know that’s not what they really mean.

What they really mean is, “What magic spell allowed you to snap your fingers and become this thin person?! I need that magic spell!”

They may not mean that literally, but it’s kind of the sentiment. The reason I know this, my four faithful readers, is that I, too, was one of them. Only recently one of them!

Anytime someone lost a great deal of weight, I would quiz them about what they were doing, and it didn’t matter whether it was low-carb via Michael Thurmond (bought, paid for and followed…for a month or two), Atkins (lost the weight and gained it back with a vengeance) or South Beach (got 10 pages in and decided it was too complicated) or anything else, I just wanted it to work QUICKLY. I wanted their MAGIC BEANS!

I would watch “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition,” recounting the stories of heroic, persistent people who would lose almost 200 lbs. I would see them and think, “Look how relatively easy that was!” That’s because I was seeing a montage of workouts, condensed into five minute segments…made for TV.

When I would begin an exercise journey, it was the waking up in the morning that got me. It was finding the clothes. It was thinking about the exertion and becoming physically sick at the thought. It was all those little hurdles you have to jump through just to make it in front of the TV and push play on the exercise DVD.

As I write today, I’ve lost only three or four pounds in the last month or more. I will tell you that I’m still eating right. I’m not exercising consistently due to chest pains, bothering me on and off for the past few weeks, but I’m not letting that deter me from keeping up my motivation.

I will also tell you that THIS is the most difficult part of weight loss…or the most difficult part of anything worth doing, really.

It’s the day in. The day out. Lose a pound. Gain two pounds. Staying the course even though you aren’t getting the quick results anymore.

It can truly wear on you, but this is where it’s so important to have made up your mind for good. I’ve had to count the cost of even a small cheat. What will a small cheat mean? A bigger cheat. A week of cheating. Derailment. I refuse to let that happen.

And so what do I tell people who ask me what I’m doing to have lost 100 lbs?

I’m on a strict eating plan, making meal-by-meal decisions about what I should eat in order to improve my health. Every. Single. Day. Without fail. That’s what I’m doing.